Saturday, January 29, 2011

What "program for action" did Paine put forward in "The Crisis," p. 142?

In your message to me, you said that this question refers
to the article written in December of 1776.  In this article, the main "program for
action" (these words aren't actually used) is for all good Americans to get together and
back the war.


Paine is saying that he has (in the past)
thought that war was not the right thing.  But now that the British have made the first
moves, a war would not be an offensive war but rather a defensive one.  As Paine
says



Not all
the treasures of the world, so far as I believe, could have induced me to support an
offensive war, for I think it murder; but if a thief breaks into my house, burns and
destroys my property, and kills or threatens to kill me, or those that are in it, and to
"bind me in all cases whatsoever" to his absolute will, am I to suffer
it?



So now that Britain has
taken the first offensive actions, what should be done?  Paine believes that all
Americans should come and fight.  He thinks that it is time for people to make
sacrifices and come out and fight so that their children can live in a better world.  As
he says:



I
call not upon a few, but upon all: not on this state or that state, but on every state:
up and help us; lay your shoulders to the wheel; better have too much force than too
little, when so great an object is at stake. Let it be told to the future world, that in
the depth of winter, when nothing but hope and virtue could survive, that the city and
the country, alarmed at one common danger, came forth to meet and to repulse it. Say not
that thousands are gone, turn out your tens of thousands; throw not the burden of the
day upon Providence, but "show your faith by your works," that God may bless
you.



So Paine is saying that
now that Britain has done wrong to the colonies, it is time for everyone in every colony
to come out and fight.  This is what I would take as the "program for action" in this
article.

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